Foreclosed Home Sales Fell in 2010

More than a quarter of all homes sold last year were foreclosed properties, and that is an improvement over the previous year.

RealtyTrac has released its Year-End and Q4 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report to show that foreclosed homes accounted for 25.96 percent of all U.S. residential sales in 2010.

That is a decrease from the 29 percent of all sales attributed to foreclosures in 2009.

In Illinois, 29,194 foreclosed homes were sold in 2010. That number equals 26.34 percent of all sales.

Nationally, the average sales price of foreclosed properties was more than 28 percent below the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure, an increase from 27 percent in 2009.

In Illinois, the discount for buying a foreclosed home was an average of 38.63 percent less.

The fourth quarter certainly contributed to these high level of foreclosed sales. Nationwide, 149,303 foreclosed properties sold, which is almost 20 percent of all homes sold.

In Illinois, 4,670 foreclosed homes were purchased in the fourth quarter of 2010. That equals 25.28 percent of all residential sales.

“Foreclosure sales in the fourth quarter faced the twin headwinds of the expired homebuyer tax credit — which began to stifle sales volume during the third quarter — and the foreclosure documentation controversy, which hit in the fourth quarter and temporarily froze sales of foreclosures from several major lenders,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Given those factors, it’s not surprising that in the fourth quarter foreclosure sales volume hit its lowest level since the first quarter of 2008.

“Still, foreclosures continue to represent a substantial percentage of all U.S. residential sales and continue to sell at an average sales price that is significantly below the average sales price of properties not in foreclosure — the result of a bloated supply of foreclosures and weak demand from homebuyers.

“The catch-22 for 2011 is that while accelerating foreclosure sales will help clear the oversupply of distressed properties and return balance to the market in the long run, in the short term a high percentage of foreclosure sales will continue to weigh down home prices.”

To end on an it-could-always-be-worse note: Residents in Nevada might be enjoying better weather than us, but they are also dealing with the fact that 57 percent of all home sales in 2010 were foreclosed properties; 59 percent in the fourth quarter alone.